31 former Edmonton Oilers on NHL rosters to start the 2025-26 season

Pacific Division

The Oilers are one of eight teams in the Pacific Division, and among the other seven teams, there are 10 former Oilers. Two different Pacific Division teams have three former Oilers on their roster: the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks.

Starting with the Kings, Cody Ceci was an Oiler from 2021-22 until 2023-24, scoring two separate goals in a Game 7, one ironically came against the Kings. Warren Foegele was acquired from the Hurricanes for Ethan Bear, and he also played from the 2021-22 until the 2023-24 season with the Oilers. Corey Perry played parts of two seasons with the Oilers, and scored 19 goals and 30 points in 81 games last season, as well as 10 goals and 14 points in 22 postseason games.

Of the three former Oilers on the Sharks, Vincent Desharnais is the only one who played more than a season with the Oilers. The 29-year-old was drafted by the team in the seventh round of the 2016 draft and played parts of two seasons with the Oilers. John Klingberg and Jeff Skinner were a part of the Oilers’ Stanley Cup Finals push in 2024-25.

Another player who was a part of the Oilers’ Stanley Cup run last season, as well as the season before, is Evander Kane. The 34-year-old was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in the off-season.

The other former Oilers who are still in the Pacific Division are Ryan Strome (Anaheim Ducks), Adam Larsson (Seattle Kraken) and Jordan Eberle (Kraken). Eberle’s seven seasons with the Oilers are the longest for anyone on this list. He was eventually traded to the Islanders for Strome, while Larsson was acquired in the Taylor Hall trade.

Central Division

Surprisingly, only three teams in the Central Division have a former Oiler on their roster. The most notable are the St. Louis Blues, as they signed both Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg during the 2024 off-season. Both players broke out with increased playing time. Nick Bjugstad is the other former Oiler on the Blues’ roster, and he spent the 2023 postseason push with the team. In that trade, the Oilers sent Michael Kesselring to the then-Arizona Coyotes.

Kesselring no longer plays for the Utah Mammoth, who were once the Coyotes. In fact, Kesselring never played for the Oilers, which is also the case for Mammoth defenceman John Marino. The right-shot defenceman’s rights were traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins after the Oilers drafted him in the sixth round of the 2015 draft.

Kailer Yamamoto, another Mammoth player, did play for the Oilers. Called up toward the end of 2019, he scored 11 goals and 26 points in 27 games before the pandemic shut everything down. He posted a 20-goal, 41-point season with the Oilers in 2021-22, but was traded during the 2023 off-season and has spent time with the Kraken and Mammoth.

Former Oiler general manager Peter Chiarelli was famously at the helm when the Oilers re-signed Mikko Koskinen and was fired shortly after. His last trade saw him move Chris Wideman and a 2019 third-round pick to the Florida Panthers for Alex Petrovic. I liked Petrovic, but giving up a third in a season where the Oilers were going to miss the playoffs is insane. Petrovic plays for the Dallas Stars nowadays.

So does Adam Erne, who played 24 games with the Oilers in 2023-24, scoring a goal and two points. Erne’s goal came in Dec. 21’s game against the New Jersey Devils, an insurance goal, which kick-started the Oilers’ 16-game win streak.

Atlantic Division

The first trade after Chiarelli was fired saw the Oilers trade Cam Talbot to the Flyers for Anthony Stolarz. Both are in the NHL – Talbot with the Detroit Red Wings and Stolarz with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and both are better options than what the Oilers have now. Erik Gustafsson, the Oilers’ fourth-round pick in 2012, also plays for the Red Wings but never laced up the skates for the Oilers.

Kesselring is another example of a player drafted by the Oilers who has gone on to make a solid career for himself. The large right-shot defenceman was a key piece for the Buffalo Sabres in the return for J.J. Peterka during the most recent off-season. During the 2024 off-season, the Sabres acquired Ryan McLeod from the Oilers for Matt Savoie.

McLeod scored 20 goals in his first season with the Sabres, but he was moved to save cap space. Well, that salary cap was used to sign Viktor Arvidsson, who played just one underwhelming season with the Oilers before they sent him to the Boston Bruins for a future pick.

His tenure was brief, as Dmitri Kulikov played just 13 games with the Oilers after they acquired him before the 2021 trade deadline. He spent the next two seasons playing for the Wild, Ducks, and Pittsburgh Penguins, before returning to the Panthers, the team that drafted him 14th overall in 2009.

Kulikov isn’t the only former Oiler turned Panther, as Jeff Petry signed with the reigning Stanley Cup champions this past off-season. His departure was one of many questionable trades in the last two decades, as they moved him to the Canadiens for a 2015 second and a 2015 conditional fifth before the 2015 trade deadline. That pick was then flipped to the New York Rangers for Talbot, but was used by the Capitals to select Jonas Siegenthaler, a solid defenceman for the Devils. Yes, it’s weird.

Petry isn’t the former Oiler player of yesteryear (also known as the pre-Connor McDavid era) to play in the Atlantic Division this season. David Perron was acquired for Magnus Pääjärvi, and he played parts of two seasons with the Oilers. In 2013-14, he set a career-high of 28 goals, but was traded the following season for Olympian Rob Klinkhammer and the 16th overall pick in the 2015 draft. Don’t ask about what happened to that pick; nothing good can come of it. Perron now plays for the Ottawa Senators.

Metropolitan Division

The Devils’ last Hart Trophy winner was Taylor Hall, who was traded in a one-for-one deal that saw the Oilers get back Adam Larsson. Hall went on to win the league’s MVP in just his second season with the Devils, but has had a journeyman career since then, playing for the Arizona Coyotes, Sabres, Bruins, Blackhawks, and now the Carolina Hurricanes. He was also involved in the Mikko Rantanen trade last season.

Sticking with the Devils, they currently employ Connor Brown, who signed a four-year deal worth $3 million annually. He’s the last former Oiler from the two Stanley Cup Finals, unless you count Sam Carrick, who was acquired alongside Adam Henrique before the 2024 trade deadline.

Carrick, who now plays for the Rangers, played 26 collective games with the Oilers, 16 in the regular season and 10 during the 2014 postseason. Carrick’s most notable moment as an Oiler is when he speared Kulikov in a sensitive area in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Throughout this article, we’ve looked at a few questionable moves when Peter Chiarelli was the general manager. One thing that Chiarelli did well in his tenure as the Oilers’ general manager was drafting. The 2015 draft was a mixed bag; the Reinhart trade really put a damper on it.

That said, Chiarelli had some late-round hits. We’ve already looked at where sixth-round pick John Marino ended up, but Chiarelli also drafted Caleb Jones (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Ethan Bear (New York Islanders) in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.

Bear looked as if he was going to be a solid top-four defenceman for the Oilers, but he dealt with COVID and a freak concussion. Last season with the Capitals’ American Hockey League team, he scored 10 goals and 46 points in 62 games.

As for Jones, he’s become a journeyman but was acquired in the Duncan Keith trade in 2021 to play alongside his brother, Seth Jones, with the Blackhawks.